Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Daily Devotional Thought--From the Old Testament (Staying on the Horse)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We have a Sunday evening tradition in the Truwe house. We make frozen pizza for dinner, sit in the living room with our TV trays (or in our high chairs), and watch America's Funniest Home Videos, or as my oldest calls is, "Funny Videos!" This past Sunday's show included a video in which three young siblings, two girls and a boy were sitting proudly on a saddle on top of a horse. As the young children giggled with glee, the saddle began to slide to one side, and before they had time to ask for help, all three children had landed in a pile on the ground.

Yesterday's Old Testament reading from 2 Chronicles 34 about the young King Josiah made me think about this video:

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left (2 Chronicles 34:1-2).

It is the struggle of every Christian to stay on the horse, and to not fall of on either the right hand or the left. Take the recent issue regarding openly homosexual pastors. On the right hand, the temptation is to overreact and accuse all homosexuals of being faithless, or even presenting God has someone who doesn't desire all men to be saved. This distorts God's Word and is not faithful. But on the left hand, the temptation is to accept not just the sinful man or woman, but the sin itself. Again, the Word of God is distorted.

Whether you fall off on the right or the left, you've still fallen off. Let us all, like the young King Josiah, search for the middle way, the way that stays on top of the strong horse, the way that is faithful to Christ.

And what will keep us in this faithful middle ground? Not a horse, but the powerful Word of God alone. The Word that shows us our sin, but reveals the Savior. Amen.